FanPost

Second-Best Starting Five



Because this time of year is so slow sports-wise (especially when it comes to basketball), most fanposts are flooded with inane nostalgia, pointless "what-if" scenarios, and trite polling.

This one is no different.

While sitting in a Buffalo Wild Wings, I saw a photo of the Blazers' early 90's starting five. Drexler, Porter, Duckworth, Kersey, and Williams. You can rattle their names off like Santa's reindeer or the names of the original Power Rangers... Okay, maybe that second one is just me, but you get the point. That starting five is iconic in Portland and represents a period of basketball dominance and prominence. They're untouchable. They didn't win it all, but they went to two NBA Finals, three Western Conference finals, and embraced the community like no other group has.

But then I thought "who comes in second?". Now that's a debate!

Is it the 1977 starting five (Walton, Lucas, Twardzik, Hollins, and Gross)? They won it all, but were very short-lived and not as solid top-to-bottom as others.

Was it the 2000 starting five (Stoudemire, Pippen, Smith, Wallace, and Sabonis)? They were apart of a bananas roster, like video-game-esque in terms of depth. However, they were also short lived, hot-headed, and coughed up the game-to-not-be-mentioned-any-futher.

Or was it one that we're forgetting to mention? Maybe it was the early '08-'09 starting five (Blake, Roy, Batum, Aldridge, Oden/Przybilla). Our '87 team had a nice starting five (Porter, Drexler, Vandeweghe, Jones, and Johnson). Even our current starting five is nothing to shake a stick at (you know this one).

What's your opinion? One of the five that I mentioned, or do you have something out of left field?

P.S. If you say the starting five from the last game of the '05-'06 season (Blake, Telfair, Webster, Khryapa, and Ratliff), then may your deity of choice have mercy on your soul.